Pop culture 2014: Hits and misses (so far)

By Breeanna Hare, CNN

Updated 2:14 PM ET, Fri July 18, 2014

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Photos:Photos: 2014's best, worst in pop culture

Best and worst pop culture of 2014 – What a year it's been. From Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie to the "Guardians of the Galaxy" to Stephen Colbert signing off "The Colbert Report," 2014 has been packed with monumental pop culture moments -- both good and bad. Once you're done admiring Ellen's selfie skills, snapped at this year's Oscars ceremony, read on for our list of 2014's best and worst pop culture moments.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: In January, "Saturday Night Live" hired Sasheer Zamata, its first black female cast member in six years. The sketch show followed that up by bringing Leslie Jones out of the writers' room and in front of the camera, marking the first time the series ever had two black female cast members at the same time. Going into its 40th season in the fall, "SNL" made a bunch of other changes, too, like stealing Michael Che away from "The Daily Show" and snapping up Pete Davidson.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: One day, you can tell someone that you lived to see The McConaissance. Once known as the bongo-playing guy with an aversion to wearing shirts,MatthewMcConaughey has had the last laugh in 2014 by lining up projects that have officially deemed him a Serious and Talented Actor. He now even has the Oscar to prove it, thanks to "Dallas Buyers Club."

2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: During awards season, Lupita Nyong'o won moviegoers' hearts, dazzled on the red carpet and took home a bunch of acting awards, including the best supporting actress Oscar for "12 Years a Slave." The gifted actress was also People magazine's "Most Beautiful" person, and she's been cast in "Star Wars: Episode VII." Nyong'o's only worry may be that no other year can compare with 2014.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Jared Leto's #HotJesus hair and the memes it spawned has indisputably been one of the best parts of 2014, with his hugs being a close second.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: The guiding light for sartorial iconoclasts everywhere, Pharrell Williams proved in 2014 he doesn't give a fig what you think about his fashion. Why should he? He makes pretty much every song you want to dance to. He even made you "Happy." So if he feels like wearing Smokey the Bear's hat, he will. Also? He can wear Uggs to the BET Awards and short pants to the Oscars. Because he is Pharrell, and you will deal with it.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Jimmy Fallon took over for a retiring Jay Leno in March, part of one of the many changes on late-night TV -- including Seth Meyers leaving "SNL" to join "Late Night." Since the takeover, Fallon has routinely provided some of the Web's most viral videos, and he's held on to his spot as the No. 1 late-night show.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: We know some fans liked the "How I Met Your Mother" series finale in March. We know the creators, cast and crew all worked hard to end a long-running show with the dignity it deserved, and we commend them for it. We appreciate Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Radnor coming up with thoughtful, reasonable defenses. But when we start talking about the best finales of all time, gotta say, this one doesn't make the cut.

2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: CBS somehow must have known the only way the masses would accept Letterman's departure would be to bring in Stephen Colbert as a replacement. We're sad to see Dave go but intrigued by what Colbert will do in the host's chair. Especially since he's immortal now and all.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: In the spring of 2014, when we were recovering from David Letterman's announcement that he was set to retire, Craig Ferguson dropped another bomb. He, too, was going to depart CBS' late-night lineup and leave "The Late Late Show" on December 19, leaving us wistful for one of the medium's most creative hosts.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Miley Cyrus has come undone, and it may be the best thing that could've happened to her career. At first, everyone was flabbergasted by the ex-Disney star's uninhibited debauchery. But her "Bangerz" tour, which was an admittedly bumpy ride, helped to cement her new identity and acclimate audiences to her new vibe. Cyrus isn't wearing any clothes? Oh, it must be Tuesday.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: The insane amount of attention paid to the grandiose wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West in May was off-putting, no argument here. And we're still not so sure about the couple landing on the cover of Vogue. But these two looked as happy as top-shelf clams in their wedding photos, and c'mon, they're the parents of North! North is always the best.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: "The Fault in Our Stars" was made into a movie, and the movie people got it right. That's not a guarantee with a book adaptation -- especially one as adored as "TFIOS" -- so we cherish the times when it does happen. (The movie, starring Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley, was so awesome someone might have tried to steal this bench in Amsterdam that appeared in a scene.)

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: Shia LaBeouf's strange detour into performance art was entertaining for some, but it was an unnecessary distraction and did nothing to help his troubled reputation. We're hoping for a future with fewer paper bags, Broadway arrests and silent interviews -- and more focus on his career.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: We remember when Robin Thicke was just a happy-go-lucky singer of love songs with long hair and a bike he rode around the city. To see him now as an obsessive and lovesick artist with a poor social media strategy makes us sad.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best and worst: We don't know what's going on in Jay Z's and Beyonce's personal lives, and we'll likely never know, because the couple are just that untouchable. After unveiling her surprise visual album at the end of 2013, Beyonce teamed up with the hubby on an entertainment takeover, going from stadium to arena proclaiming how "Drunk in Love" they are. That video of the elevator fight between Jay Z and Bey's sister Solange was disturbing, but the family has glossed over it, and the couple have been "On the Run" like it never even happened.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: "Guardians of the Galaxy" was either going to be amazing or a complete letdown, and we couldn't be happier that it wound up being the former. Chris Pratt is an A+ leading man, Zoe Saldana continues to kick ass, we kind of think Bradley Cooper should always be an angry raccoon, and who doesn't love a dancing Groot? Biggest movie of the year, and one of the best hands-down.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Consider Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt the anti-Kimye. Instead of trying to upstage all of the recent royal weddings like some people we know, they quietly tied the knot in France in August -- so quietly, in fact, that no one even knew they were having a ceremony. It kicked off a stream of other famous weddings, including the union of George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin, and Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: In September, Emma Watson used her celebrity for a good cause. She spoke in front of the United Nations as part of the launch of its HeforShe campaign, which promotes gender equality. "How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?" she said. "Men -- I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue, too."

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: This fall, three incredible things happened over on ABC. One, a new drama debuted starring the too-often-marginalized Viola Davis in the kind of juicy lead role rarely offered to black actresses. Two, that drama, "How to Get Away with Murder," became a huge hit. And three, it brought about the start of Shonda Rhimes' Thursdays, the one prime-time network block where thoughtful representation is just as important as effervescent storytelling.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: While it was nice of U2 to want to give away its music for free, as it did with the surprise album "Songs of Innocence," it was not nice of the band to try to force it upon all of us. After its unveiling during an Apple announcement, "Songs of Innocence" was added to the music libraries of iTunes users as a "purchased" album -- whether they wanted it or not. Apple had to come up with a tool to remove it to satisfy the iTunes users furiously Googling "how to get rid of U2 album."

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: When was the last time you listened to a podcast so popular that you could strike up a conversation about it -- and have the other person know exactly what you're talking about? Hats off to Sarah Koenig and the "Serial" team for crafting a record-setting program.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: In September, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of "The Cosby Show." Weeks later, we were left conflicted in our adoration of the seminal series as its creator and star, Bill Cosby, was awash in accusations from numerous women. As the saga continues, many of us are left wondering how to separate the scandal from a series that brought so much joy.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Taylor Swift has a fair share of haters, but this year she thumbed her nose at them and a record industry anxious to keep listeners at all costs. To those who complain that she's not a country song as much as she's a pop star, Swift went ahead and released a full-fledged pop album, "1989." And instead of allowing those secret Swift fans to check it out for free on Spotify, the singer pulled every last one of her songs from the streaming music service.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: Lifetime's movies have always been events more for their camp and cheese than their quality, but this year the cable network took an egregious step in the wrong direction. Their Brittany Murphy biopic fell short, their "Unauthorized Saved By the Bell" send-up was a bore, and their Aaliyah biopic bordered on a crime against humanity -- at least, if you let Twitter tell it.

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: Jennifer Lawrence just keeps winning. When some hacker tried to embarrass the Oscar winner by leaking her nude photos -- along with the private images of several other actresses -- Lawrence fought fire with intelligence. She gave a bombshell of an interview to Vanity Fair in which she clarified that the hack wasn't "a scandal" but a "sex crime." She also gave us food for thought on the nature of celebrity. "It's my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting," she told the magazine. "I can't believe that we even live in that kind of world."

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: Kim, c'mon. You released one of the biggest apps to hit the Apple store this year, stayed in steady rotation on E!, and married the man of your dreams in a blowout wedding. Did you really need to grab for more publicity with the over-reaching Paper magazine covers? The answer here is "no."

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Best: "Star Wars: Episode VII" finally got a trailer just after Thanksgiving, and for that weekend it was a synonym for "best thing ever." Know what else was amazing? The way new "Star Wars" star John Boyega shut down racist remarks in the classiest way possible. Anyone flummoxed to see a black man in a Stormtrooper suit should, in the words of Boyega, "get used to it."

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2014's best and worst in pop culture – Worst: At first, the world thought the Sony hack in November was nothing more than a way for the rest of the world to find out about executives' embarrassing emails. But when threats from the group claiming responsibility for the hack led to Sony canceling the release of its film "The Interview," it spiraled into a frightening look at cyberterrorism and the United States' response to it. In other words, no laughing matter.